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This Week's News

The head of the Crown Prosecution Service faced criticism in Parliament this afternoon over the conviction rate of journalists and was challenged about allegations of a "witch hunt" against the industry.

Appearing before the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee this afternoon, Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders denied that the CPS has been pursuing cases against journalists because of a “groundswell of attention”.

Phone-hacking was "rife" at all three of Mirror Group Newspaper's (MGN) national titles by mid-1999 at the latest, the High Court has heard.

The date when the practice first started at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People was not known, counsel David Sherborne told a hearing to decide the amount of compensation to be awarded in eight representative claims.

But the evidence was that it was rife on the showbusiness desk at the Daily Mirror by mid-1999 and continued thereafter.

The killing of journalists is a “global tragedy” which needs to be urgently addressed, according to WAN-IFRA.

The group, which represents 18,000 news publications around the world, presented this year’s Golden Pen Of Freedom award to “journalists killed in the line of duty”.

WAN-IFRA estimates that nearly 1,200 journalists have been killed around the world doing their jobs since 1992 – including 16 this year. Eight were killed on 7 January in the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

The Metropolitan Police has admitted to using Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to secretly obtain the phone records of three Sun journalists and the paper's newsdesk as part of its Plebgate investigation.

Previously, the force told Press Gazette and others that its "use of RIPA as part of Operation Alice" was "outlined" in the investigation's 56-page closing report.

Published in September 2014, this revealed that telecommunications data was taken, under RIPA, from the phone of political editor Tom Newton Dunn and The Sun newsdesk to find its sources.

The media has irresponsibly turned "Jihadi John" into a modern day Jesse James by repeatedly publishing his name and picture, a Conservative MP has claimed.

Tory Bob Stewart (Beckenham) said it was "utterly abhorrent" to see the references to Mohamed Emwazi after his unmasking last week, warning it could reinforce the belief of some that his barbaric activities were defensible.

Home Secretary Theresa May later urged journalists to be "responsible" in their reporting after defending the need for a free press.

Trinity Mirror’s pre-tax profits grew by 1 per cent to £102.3m in 2014, despite revenue falling 4.1 per cent to £636.3m during the year.

The publisher set aside £12m for legal costs associated with “historic legal issues”, including phone-hacking, last year, and it said today there is “present uncertainty” about how much this could cost in the future.

According to the publisher’s annual results announcement today, it made £15m in structural cost savings during 2014 - £5m ahead of its target. A further £10m of cost savings are targeted this year.

Telegraph group editor Chris Evans has invited his journalists to contribute to new guidelines on the relationship between editorial and commercial.

The move follows the resignation earlier this month of chief political commentator Peter Oborne who claimed the paper had allowed commercial concerns to mute its coverage of the HSBC Swiss tax avoidance scandal.